


a dragon and a pearl

by ancientglowstick



Category: Wicked - All Media Types, Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Genre: Bisexual Elphaba Thropp, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Girls Kissing, Kissing, Lesbian Galinda Upland, Lots of Symbolism, No Lesbians Die, and also fiyero, and elphie loves fiyero and galinda, and she makes a life with him, and they were roomates, because clearly she's a high femme lesbian with a terrible case of heteronormativity, buckle up buckaroos, but galinda is always a might've been, but he really throws a wrench into the wlw enemies to lovers thing going on here, even though she's really in love with galinda, in this fic galinda just likes the idea of the classic power couple she and fiyero would be, mentions of nessarose - Freeform, no shade to fiyero I love him, oh my god they were roomates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23048161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancientglowstick/pseuds/ancientglowstick
Summary: Months after two star-crossed enemies are forced to room together and become uneasy friends, they realize each may be the only person in the world who truly sees the other. Their infamous loathing for each other may be inaptly named.
Relationships: Elphaba Thropp/Galinda Upland
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	1. a dragon and a pearl

**Author's Note:**

> To keep continuity with WICKED and for my own linguistic pleasure, I've Oz-ified the occasional word in this work. To keep them hopefully easy to understand, they're not frequent and close to the original words. But, just in case, I'm going to post a Chapter 2 pronunciation guide and dictionary. It'll have the Oz-ified words, their pronunciations, the original words exactly as they would've appeared in-text, and definitions that apply to both. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment!

Gold hair with a touch of curl. Sparkling grey-blue eyes full of wonder. A jauntilious, tilted white beret. A smile that could shake the world to its core. It certainly gave Elphaba a start when she first saw it. _Loathing_ , she called it.

And the feeling, a fiery feeling, an undeniable feeling that made its bed in the heart of her soul like a dragon awaiting a challenger, was mutual.

Never were there two women who loathed each other more. 

But as the days grew shorter, as their studifying progressed, there was inexplicably _something_ about Galinda. Sure, she was stuck-up sometimes. And so flouncery. And her voice easily graced entire octaves like a nightingale song. And she pinned the spotlight to the floor wherever she walked. Light of any kind made her hair sparkle like the many jewel-adorned dresses that filled her wardrobe.

But more than that, Galinda was inexplicable. Elusive in the loveliest, most intriguing way. Around their classmates and teachers, Galinda perfected her part as the princess. Pretty and vain and ditzy and bubbly. Speaking with glittery words and gently breaking hearts. Carrying mirrors and being carried on everyone’s shoulders. Pink and pearly and perfect.

When she and Elphaba were alone, though, in the dorm they shared long after futile protests had died, Galinda let herself breathe. Slouch and think and tell the truth. She was still pearly, of course, but rough and grooved and imperfect. Like a real pearl is.

Her laugh was the same precious flirty giggle, but she laughed longer and harder and rolled around on the bed holding her stomach. She bounced and yelled and wore pink and made faces. Saw herself in the mirror and saw Elphaba the person, not the horrifical frog abomination. There was something about her inexplicability that made Elphaba wonder if Galinda was maybe, just possibly, lonely too, if no one truly saw _her_. 

“You know, Elphie,” Galinda said one day while shaping the waves in her hair with a soft bristle brush fit for a queen, “I think you take yourself too seriously.”

Elphaba’s eyes traced over the paragraph she had been reading a second time. No one had ever given her a nickname before, much less a nickname like _Elphie_. Only Galinda would - could - create such a sweetiferous name for someone like her. “What was that?” Elphaba replied, trying her best to feign absentmindedness, hoping to hear Galinda say it again.

“I said, ‘I think you take yourself too seriously,’ Elphie.”

And a rush of the loathing spilled over the corners of Elphaba’s soul and filled her cheeks with deep green, hot satisfaction.

“You’re always so uptight and restrained.” Galinda shook out her hair with a famous _toss, toss_ and fluffed the short, shimmering waves of her peach dress - the closest, Elphaba thought, that Galinda would ever come to wearing orange. 

Galinda continued, using her brush as a prop to prove her point. “This must be this way,” she said, arms locked straight and eyebrows furrowed in a mock scowl that devolved into an endearing pout. Elphaba followed the display in the mirror, the sharp lines of her face softened as she sat on the bed, enraptured with Galinda losing herself in the playful performance. “All my clothes are _plainificant_ and _black_. I can’t talk to Fiyero even though I really like him. The only reason I leave our room is to go to class. I only think about Nessarose all the time and never what I want. I never smile.” 

Galinda faltered on the last word. Her soft voice nearly broke, and Elphaba thought if it had, something inside her dragon soul would’ve broken too. 

With an effortless, subdued twirl, Galinda turned away from the mirror. For the first time since they’d met, Galinda fixed her shining eyes on the floor. She would not look at Elphaba. She could not.

Elphaba pulled her own eyes away, choosing to stare blankly at a watery mirage of her book rather than confront the genuine hurt on Galinda’s beautiful face. The person who saw her when no one else did, could not even look her in the eyes. Elphaba was so used to it she assumed that Galinda couldn’t look at her because she had finally seen the true Elphaba - fearsome and intimidating and bad. 

Regret and shame had plaguified Elphaba’s poor life, but nothing compared to the wave of both that overtook her when she realized that Galinda had truly seen her, indeed - her sorrow and pain and loneliness. 

And seeing Elphaba suffer was too much for Galinda to bear.

Galinda floated toward Elphaba’s bed and sat down quietly, so close that the folds of her skirt cascaded into Elphaba’s lap. There was gold thread woven through the pinkish satin. Elphaba had never noticed before.

Galinda ran a delicate finger up and down the brush, carving soothing patterns in the bristles like wind in a yellow meadow somewhere much more serene than there. Small tears dotted dazzlerous pale pink pearls on the handle.

“You never smile, Elphie. I’m worried.”

Elphaba stole a teary glance to her right, where Galinda’s somber face remained focused on the brush in her hands.

“You can’t live like this anymore,” Galinda whispered, almost speaking to herself. “I won’t let you.”

Another wave of loathing crept up, much slower than the first. Simmerifying rather than sparking. It seeped into Elphaba’s face, leaving a trail of emerald heat before it lingered in her chest behind her heart. 

“Is there anything I can do? Something that will make you happy?” As she spoke, Galinda’s hands left the brush enveloped in her skirt and started to unwind Elphaba’s long black braid. The action, now a familiar tradition, was nevertheless a nighttime routine, yet Elphaba didn’t protest. The feeling of Galinda’s hands working through the painfully tight braid felt comforting, as if Galinda were going to untwist all her troubles and they’d both settle down for a late morning nap.

Galinda, finished with the braid, brushed long strokes through Elphaba’s hair. Her touch was practiced but tender, even when the coarsery hairs knotted themselves in thick tangles. And when all the tangles were smoothed, Galinda would simply run her fingers through Elphaba’s hair in intimate, soothing patterns.

After a few moments, when both had very nearly succeeded at no longer crying, Galinda rested her head on Elphaba’s shoulder. Softly, she spoke again. “Is there anything?”

The fingers on Elphaba’s right hand twitched, and maybe the candles lighting the room flickered for a moment. She turned, so Galinda shifted and finally, finally looked Elphaba in the eyes again. There wasn’t a pretty enough color to capture the beauty of Galinda’s grey-blue eyes. 

“Yes,” Elphaba whispered, faint enough that she wasn’t even sure she had said it aloud. Her hand twitched again, inching forward, ruffling Galinda’s skirt. She wanted so badly to touch Galinda in return. Her hands, her hair, her lips.

Galinda kissed her so swiftly she dropped her beautiful brush and it fell to the carpet.

And that instant, the loathing overflowed from a dragon and a pearl so fiercerously and so fixed that they finally recognized it as love.


	2. a dictionary of thrillifying ozian words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all the Oz-ified words I used in "a dragon and a pearl," in case you couldn't tell what I meant since I altered them. no shade literally a fourth of them have three i's

A Dictionary Of Thrillifying Ozian Words 

In order of appearance

**Jauntilious** (jawn-TIL-ee-us) - jaunty;  having or expressing a lively, cheerful, and self-confident manner

**Studifying** (STOOD-i-fye-ing) - studying;  devote time and attention to acquiring knowledge on an academic subject, especially by means of books

**Flouncery** (FLOUNS-er-ee) - flouncy;  having emphatic or impatient movements; decorated with ruffles

**Horrifical** (hor-I-fi-kul) - horrific, horrifying;  causing horror; extremely shocking

**Sweetiferous** (sweet-I-fer-us) - sweet;  marked by gentle good humor or kindliness

**Plainificant** (plane-I-fi-kint) - plain;  not decorated or elaborate

**Plaguified** (PLAY-gi-fide) - plagued;  caused worry or distress

**Dazzlerous** (DAZ-ler-us) - dazzling;  brilliantly or showily bright, colorful, or impressive

**Simmerifying** (SIM-er-i-fye-ing) - simmering;  just below boiling;  in a state of mild agitation or turmoil

**Coarsery** (CORS-er-ee) - coarse;  rough or loose in texture or grain

**Fiercerously** (FEERS-er-us-lee) fiercely;  with a heartfelt and powerful intensity

**Thrillifying** (THRILL-i-fye-ing) - thrilling; causing excitement and pleasure; exhilarating


End file.
